Reinhold Friedrich

The German trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich was born in Weingarten (Baden), and since his success at the ARD International Competition in 1986 has performed in international concert halls and at renowned festivals. His debut at the Berliner Festspiele in 1982 performing Luciano Berio’s Sequen-za X and his first appearance at the Vienna Musikverein in 1994 performing Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto on a historical keyed trumpet convey the broad spectrum of his musical activities.

He has performed on historical instruments with the Capriccio Barockorchester, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and the Orchester Wiener Akademie, and has also appeared in world premieres and first performances of works by Carola Bauckholt, Peter Maxwell Davies, Hans Werner Henze, Adriana Hölszky, Nicolaus A. Huber, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders and Caspar Johannes Walter.

In 2003, Claudio Abbado appointed him principal trumpet of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He is also artistic director of the orchestra’s brass ensemble.

In 2022 he founded the Reinhold Friedrich Brass Quintett. In this first-class quintet he works together with experienced musicians — the Belgian Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet), the Dane Lasse Mauritzen (horn), the British Ian Bousfield (trombone) and the Norwegian Thomas Røisland (tuba) — to set new standards in brass chamber music, including commissioning arrangements and presenting premiere recordings. Their first album, Unity, was released in April 2024.

Reinhold Friedrich’s numerous recordings also include Herbert Willi’s solo concerto Eirene and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Nobody knows de trouble I see, for which he was awarded an ECHO Klassik. He has recorded three albums with the pianist Eriko Takezawa, the last of which, Sonatae e Variácie, includes three new discoveries and was released in May 2025.

Reinhold Friedrich is professor of trumpet at the University of Music in Karlsruhe, and an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Music, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.